An exciting play by 16-year-old Melanie Barcenas wasn’t enough to end San Diego Wave FC’s struggles Friday night in Portland.

Two minutes after a goalkeeper denied Barcenas what would’ve been a spectacular first professional goal by the skillful midfielder, the Wave allowed a crisp goal in the 84th minute.

It stood as the winner, dealing the 10th-place Wave a 1-0 defeat.

San Diego has lost via shutout in both games since Wave President Jill Ellis, looking for more offense, fired coach Casey Stoney.

Winless in their past nine matches and their nine road matches, a year after Stoney led them to the regular-season title, the Wave saw 22-year-old Isabella D’Aquila put away Janine Beckie’s crossing pass to end the stalemate.

Barcenas, sidelined much of the season by a hip injury, mounted a deft threat two minutes earlier.  She tamed Savannah McCaskill’s crossing pass, then unloaded a 14-yard shot that Shelby Hogan punched over the bar.

When the Wave resume their regular season Aug. 23 following the 2024 Olympics, look for Barcenas to get more playing time.

But the Wave have been shut out in three consecutive games. Scoreless on the season are forwards Alex Morgan, McCaskill and María Sánchez.

In their discussion before the match, Wave players emphasized teamwork and effort, said goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan .

The message, she told Prime Sports before kickoff, was to “play with a passion that we all have and really trust ourselves and trust our teammates. We need to get back to those basics that we had in year one and year two.”

The Wave advanced fullbacks Hanna Lundkvist and Kristen McNabb into the attack throughout a scoreless first half. The tactic contributed to the Wave winning the possession game by nearly 20 percentage points.

But San Diego put none of its first-half shots on goal.

In both matches under interim coach Paul Buckle, the Wave have sent additional players forward in attempts to create more offense.

Erratic shooting and one terrific save prevented the Wave from scoring in their first match under Buckle, a 3-0 homefield loss to seventh-place Chicago.

Against Portland the Wave’s increased attacking didn’t produce any tough first-half challenges for Hogan.

It was Portland that created the more dangerous chances in the half, although the Wave got a lot of activity from forwards Morgan, Makenzy Doniak and Lundkvist, 21.

“It’s not always easy when there’s that much pace in the opposition, because we’re leaving open spaces,” Buckle said at halftime. “It’s just a tweak. Maybe our fullbacks can jump on a little bit earlier.”

Buckle replaced midfielder Jaedyn Shaw and Doniak early in the second half with midfielder Danielle Colaprico and rookie forward Mya Jones.

Morgan, playing three days after her 35th birthday, saw a first-half tap-in goal erased by an offside infraction. She wore a wrap on her left hand and wrist in the second half.